Like the PSP. Does the PS3 have this? On the PSP you can flick the on switch and the system will sleep. Flick it again and you are back right where you left off. Is this why people set their Live account to "away"? So they don't have to shut the system down?

I will say that what makes COD4 that much better is that it takes just seconds to get into the MP menu. All the up-front credits (studio names, etc.) are skippable by pressing a button. More games should be that way.

Not much longer after my controller disconnects due to inactivity my 360 display on my HDTV dims. As far as I'm aware it's a sleep mode. I'm not sure how that effects XBL game play, because I've never walked away while playing an online game.

That's just the screen saver - the system itself is still on, fans going, etc. I want to be able to shut the system down with a button so it is using minimal power, and then with another press, return to where I was in a game. DS games also do this when you close the lid.

That's just the screen saver - the system itself is still on, fans going, etc. I want to be able to shut the system down with a button so it is using minimal power, and then with another press, return to where I was in a game. DS games also do this when you close the lid.

Ok, now I see what you're saying. I was under the impression that some of the internal components were placed into a lower power consumption state when the screen saver kicks in. What you're describing is actually what I know to be a resume mode?

That's just the screen saver - the system itself is still on, fans going, etc. I want to be able to shut the system down with a button so it is using minimal power, and then with another press, return to where I was in a game. DS games also do this when you close the lid.

Ok, now I see what you're saying. I was under the impression that some of the internal components were placed into a lower power consumption state when the screen saver kicks in.

nah, it's just a screen saver as Teggy said

Teggy, no the PS3 does not have a sleep mode either...I think it's really just something exclusive to the DS and PSP

This would be really nice to have, even if it's very unfriendly to the environment. Games take a while to load and a lot of games employ save points. Having the sleep mode would really help my case, because nothing annoys me more than have to search for a save point (or return to one, ala GTA4) when you're called away to do something (that would be beyond a few minutes). Games like GTA4 also take a while to load.

I'm under the impression that all sleep mode is is keeping the data in RAM. My PC can do it, why not the 360? The only thing that would be messed up (I think) would be in-game clocks. New games would just have to be programmed to detect sleep mode and disregard that time. The 360 is simply too loud to keep running, never mind how power hungry it is.

I'm under the impression that all sleep mode is is keeping the data in RAM. My PC can do it, why not the 360?

Technically, there's two different 'sleep modes' for the PC. One, which is just titled Sleep, puts your PC into a low-power mode. It's still on, and resumes pretty much instantly, but it's still drawing a bit of power. But it also is running cooler, as the processor doesn't need to do much of anything during that time.

Then you have Hibernation. That is where Windows dumps the contents of RAM to your HD, and then fully turns off. When you resume, Windows reads that data, puts it back into RAM, and resumes exactly where you left off. Most emulators support this function via save states, so you might have heard of it that way.

But why doesn't the PS3 or 360 support this, when the DS supports Sleep mode? Good question. Only their respective hardware devs know the answer to that one.

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The PSP sleep mode is fantastic. I don't think I've ever actually turned it off before. The DS sleep mode is pure shit-I'll close it and then come back 2 days later and the battery has died and my game is gone.

The PSP sleep mode is fantastic. I don't think I've ever actually turned it off before. The DS sleep mode is pure shit-I'll close it and then come back 2 days later and the battery has died and my game is gone.

I forgot all about the PSP's sleep mode. Works great, but it does take a bit of power to keep it running. But it lasts far longer than the DS' sleep mode does if I remember right.

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